Grayson Waller and WWE NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell suffered legitimate injuries during Tuesday’s NXT Spring Breakin’ show.
Spring Breakin’ saw Waller come up short against NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes with the title on the line. A new report from Bryan Alvarez notes that the match was called early due to the injury. After Waller flew from the top turnbuckle to put Hayes through the announce table, the match continued for a few more minutes until Waller’s knee gave out, preventing him from hitting the rolling Cutter finisher.
The video below shows Waller hitting his leg on the ropes as he tried to roll in to execute the Cutter. Waller and Hayes then quickly went to the finish with Hayes hitting Nothing But Net for the pin to retain.
The Spring Breakin’ main event saw NXT Women’s Champion Indi Hartwell retain her title over Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton in a Triple Threat. At one point Stratton hit a dive from the turnbuckles to the floor, taking Hartwell and Perez down. A trainer then came over and checked on Hartwell while Perez and Stratton worked the match for several minutes without the champion.
Hartwell reportedly suffered a legitimate ankle injury on the dive by Stratton, and had to be taken to the trainer’s room. She eventually returned to the ring to break up a pin, and then work a few more minutes to get to the finish. Hartwell was still limping around and had to pause at least once before the match was over.
WWE officials reportedly called an audible to have Stratton win the NXT Women’s Title after Hartwell first suffered the injury, but she managed to make it back into the match to do the planned finish.
Furthermore, it was noted by PWInsider that Hartwell received a lot of credit for making it back to the match and working through the 100% legitimate injury when she didn’t have to. It was said that Hartwell “totally powered through” the injury when WWE officials were ready to pull her from the match and do the improvised finish.
Hartwell seemingly confirmed the injury with an Instagram Story this afternoon, which shows her left leg in a walking boot, as seen below. Waller and Hartwell have not publicly commented on their injuries as of this writing, but Waller called on fans to put respect on his name, and his fellow Aussie.
“Love me or hate me- I legit couldn’t care less, but put some F’N respect on my name,” Waller wrote in the post-show tweet. He then added, “Also do the same for @indi_hartwell. Australians are just built different [Australian flag emoji]”
Dijak also gave praise to Indi, tweeting a clip of the injury and recalled her demeanor as he sat next to her in the trainer’s room.
“If anyone was wondering, I happened to be sitting next to @indi_hartwell in medical while they were evaluating this gruesome injury mid-match and she was no selling the shit out of it like an absolute badass,” Dijak wrote.
As noted earlier, Sol Ruca is also on the shelf with a legitimate injury. You can click here for that report, along with notes on injuries to female competitors in NXT.
There is no word yet on how much ring time Ruca, Hartwell and Waller will miss, but we will keep you updated.
Below is the full tweet from Waller, along with a screenshot of Hartwell’s Instagram Story, and related clips from Spring Breakin’ that show the injuries:
If anyone was wondering, I happened to be sitting next to @indi_hartwell in medical while they were evaluating this gruesome injury mid-match and she was no selling the shit out of it like an absolute badass.pic.twitter.com/NiPxgXkIMp
— DIJAK (@DijakWWE) April 26, 2023
https://twitter.com/GraysonWWE/status/1651054386271993856
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